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Self Report 2019

The self-report on WHS Commitments below is organized according to the 24 transformations of the Agenda for Humanity. It is based on commitments pledged at the time of report submission. Click on the 'Expand' symbol to expand each section and read the reporting inputs by transformation.

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  • 2D
    Take concrete steps to improve compliance and accountability

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Tearfund commits to ensure prevention of gender-based violence is prioritised throughout all phases of humanitarian response, in line with the Call to Action and IASC GBV guidelines.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity

    • Tearfund commits to mobilise and facilitate the active engagement of faith groups in preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence in crisis contexts.


    • Operational
    • Uphold the Norms that Safeguard Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Gender-based violence prevention and response

    Tearfund has been systematically mainstreaming its approach to preventing sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) in programmatic design; strengthening local capacity to address the root causes of GBV at community level, including faith groups and leaders; and looking at how to adapt the approach to emergency response. GBV prevention and response has been consistently integrated in sectoral interventions. Finally, an innovative pilot project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has concluded and impact results show a reduction of 40% in intimate partner violence in conflict-affected areas, showing the effectiveness of Tearfund's approach in engaging faith communities to prevent GBV, including in humanitarian contexts.

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Data and analysis
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    A lack of data on GBV prevalence and gender analysis as well as barriers to inclusion of women and girls often limit programmatic design. Weakness of local/national systems and structures can limit the availability of and access to services, and the integration of prevention measures.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    The high number of existing policies and commitments needs to go together with consistent implementation efforts, resource availability and promotion of holistic responses to emergencies, including addressing social norms and prevention together with response-oriented interventions and service provision.

    Keywords

    Gender, Religious engagement

  • 3D
    Empower and protect women and girls

    Individual Commitments (2)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Tearfund commit to ensuring that women and girls are protected, their needs are met, and that their ability to engage in decision making is enhanced, as this is a proven strategy for increasing the effectiveness of humanitarian action as a means of building resilience for all members of families and communities.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind

    • Tearfund commits to proactively address the harmful social and gender norms in humanitarian responses, empowering and protecting women and girls.


    • Operational
    • Leave No One Behind
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Empowerment of women and girls

    Protection and empowerment of women and girls as key strategy to improve community resilience and organic growth has been promoted across Tearfund interventions, by including gender and GBV analysis and assessments across all countries, to inform intervention design. In addition, Tearfund and partners have implemented specific interventions that aim to support women survivors, fight community stigma, and promote women's participation. 

    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Buy-in
    • Gender and/or vulnerable group inclusion
    • Human resources/capacity
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Focussing on women and girls empowerment and their effective inclusion is not always prioritized in humanitarian action and response, often for lack of dedicated capacity and resources.

    Keywords

    Gender

  • 4A
    Reinforce, do not replace, national and local systems

    Individual Commitments (4)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Tearfund commit to keeping affected persons at the centre of all assistance planned and provided, maintaining robust beneficiary feedback mechanisms.  


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Tearfund commits to deliver change within its own organisational ways of working so that southern-based actors can play an increased and more prominent role in humanitarian response. It will therefore commit to the implementation of the Charter for Change by May 2018.


    • Operational
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Tearfund commits to expand the evidence base identifying the role and added value of using local and national partners in humanitarian response. This will be done through identifying what factors create an effective enabling environment between national governments, local NGOs and the international community.


    • Policy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Tearfund commits to promote cash transfer programming with national and local level NGOs and innovating with new ways of using cash programming within community based mechanisms and social safety nets.


    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Strengthening national/local leadership and systems

    In line with its commitments to strengthening national and local actors, Tearfund has:

    • Undergone a large corporate restructure. Greater resource and more decision-making powers are allocated to the country teams, who are closer to local and national partner organisations.

    • Begun to roll out its Disaster Management Capacity Assessment (DMCA) Tool. Self-assessment workshops were conducted with four aspiring, high-capacity, humanitarian partners in Mali and Nigeria, who are now implementing the first phase of their capacity strengthening plans.

    • Facilitated a partner staff member to attend the Charter for Change annual conference, where they shared recommendations on NGO-INGO partnership in conflict settings.

    • Conducted and published several research pieces that evidence the added value of local and national partners in humanitarian response.

    • In ‘Better Together’, available via online platforms including ALNAP, Tearfund shared lessons-learned through participatory disater risk reduction planning with local government in the Philippines, which concluded in 2017.

    • Through ‘Accelerating Localisation through Partnerships’, an ECHO-funded consortium of which Tearfund are a member, Tearfund published recommendations for humanitarian stakeholders regarding partnership practices that strengthen national and local leadership.These recommendations were an outcome of collaborative research with local and national NGOs in South Sudan, Nepal, Nigeria and Myanmar.

    Cash-based programming

    • Cash programming is Tearfund’s default response modality in humanitarian situations, where markets are functioning. During 2018, Tearfund implemented nearly $8 million of cash programming in countries including Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

    • Tearfund is also investing in innovative delivery models. In 2018, Tearfund delivered a pilot project to provide unconditional, multipurpose cash to vulnerable households in South Sudan using e-transfers as a cash programming modality facilitated by sQuid, a digital cash payment company. sQuid operates “smart” cash cards which allow beneficiaries to access the cash at their convenience, in small amounts and securely from vendors in the local market, who are trained by Tearfund and sQuid. The vendors use battery-operated, point-of-sale devices that can function without internet. Tearfund is also working with Dorcas and Red een Kind in Malawi as part of the Dutch Relief Alliance, focusing on a shared cash delivery platform designed as an open-source software stack which integrates the use of blockchain.

    • Tearfund continues to train local partners and national staff on cash programming to build their capacity, with a view to them undertaking future cash transfer projects single-handedly. In 2018, Tearfund’s Cash Advisor trained staff in South Sudan, Kenya, Pakistan, Iraq, Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

    People-centered approaches (feedback mechanisms, community engagement, etc)

    In relation to this commitment, Tearfund has:

    • Continued to embed its Quality Standards (QS) - a set of commitments that ensure corporate alignment with and accountability to the Core Humanitarian Standard - into staff induction and training, partner capacity development, project design, monitoring, evaluation and learning.

    • Rolled out a QS self-assessment that country offices complete annually; setting forth community consultation as a minimum requirement, which if not met, requires an improvement plan to be implemented as a high corporate priority.

    • Developed a QS checklist for each project cycle managemnet (PCM) phase, reminding project managers to consult affected communities and create opportunity for feedback about needs assessment, beneficiary selection criteria, provisional beneficiary lists, feedback mechanism design, and project design.

    • Developed and piloted a Community-based QS Impact Assessment questionnaire to evaluate communities’ engagement in and satisfaction with the programming that they are involved in. This will be mainstreamed in all of Tearfund's humanitarian programming.

    • Completed Beneficiary Accountability Assessment in Rohingya camps and host communities, gauging beneficiaries’ satisfaction with feedback mechanisms established by Tearfund partners.

    • Run two technology-assisted accountability pilot projects in South Sudan and Nigeria, aimed at proactively seeking feedback from crisis-affected communities. This approach is currently being introduced in Indonesia and Cyclone Idai affected countries.  

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • Charter for Faith-based Humanitarian Action
    • Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
    • Grand Bargain
    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    • Preparedness
    • Strengthening national/local systems
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Peace-building activities pose a challenge to humanitarian principles of neutrality/impartiality, yet are crucial for long-term recovery in many fragile states.

    • Addressing root causes of poverty is sometimes treated as being incompatible with humanitarian response.

    • A lack of investment in preparedness perpetuates the need for humanitarian intervention.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    • Holistic engagement and capacity strengthening of district and local systems that have strong linkages back to national structures. At present, bilateral investment into national capacity often fails to trickle-down to local levels, precluding local ownership of humanitarian response.

    • Investment in and commitment to working with local communities to realise their own response capacity and local authorities to develop their own DRR plans.

    Keywords

    Cash, Disaster Risk Reduction, Innovation, Local action, People-centred approach, Quality and accountability standards, Strengthening local systems

  • 4C
    Deliver collective outcomes: transcend humanitarian-development divides

    Individual Commitments (3)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Tearfund commits to continuing to work with national governments to recognise and affirm the role of faith and faith based organisations to provide faith-based assistance to communities in need.


    • Advocacy
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Tearfund commits to facilitate improved coordination between faith, state and humanitarian actors.


    • Partnership
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need

    • Tearfund commits to improve the understanding between faith-based actors and humanitarian system, to improve accessibility, networking and opportunities for collaboration in response.


    • Training
    • Change People's Lives: From Delivering Aid to Ending Need
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    Other

    Tearfund is committed to promoting and facilitating the inclusion of faith-based organisations in humanitarian response. The following are steps that Tearfund has taken towards this commitment in 2018.

    • As a member of the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI) on Faith and Local Communities, Tearfund has worked with RedR this year to design two training courses aimed at humanitarian practitioners and local faith actors respectively. They are designed to give to each audience, key concepts and tools for engaging with the other in the context of humanitarian action, and will be piloted later this year.

    • Since 2011, one of the ways in which Tearfund has supported local churches to respond to humanitarian crises, has been through a guidance manual for church leaders in disaster-prone areas: entitled ‘Disasters and the Local Church’. This year, Tearfund commissioned research into the reach, uptake and impact of the guidelines on partners and churches, in order to inform and make recommendations as to how they might be used in the future.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    • Charter for Faith-based Humanitarian Action
    • Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
    • Grand Bargain
    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Human resources/capacity
    • IHL and IHRL compliance and accountability
    • Joined-up humanitarian-development analysis, planning, funding and/or response
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    • Lack of understanding among humanitarian practitioners as to long-term implications of humanitarian action for development activities.
    • Difficulties of translating international humanitarian law and international human rights law into cross-cultural settings so that they operate effectively alongside local cultural norms/practices.
    • Lack of understanding of climate change consequences, creating a reactive, as opposed to anticipatory, approach. 

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    • There is a role for Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) to help western-based models of management to be relevant and understood in cross-cultural settings. FBOs can help people adapt their attitudes and behaviours. 

    • Tearfund will continue to challenge those within its own faith whose theological foundations are contradictory to an inclusive response.

    Keywords

    Religious engagement

  • 5E
    Diversify the resource base and increase cost-efficiency

    Individual Commitments (1)

    • Commitment
    • Commitment Type
    • Core Responsibility

    • Tearfund commits to increase effective, evidence-based monitoring and evaluation of faith based actors, holding itself accountable to the evidence and learning from its evaluations.


    • Operational
    • Invest in Humanity
    1. A. Highlight concrete actions taken between 1 January – 31 December 2018 to implement the commitments which contribute to achieving this transformation. Be as specific as possible and include any relevant data/figures as well as any good practices and examples of innovation.

    In 2018, Tearfund's effort focused on the continued roll-out of its web-based monitoring, evaluation and learning system. This has involved training Tearfund's staff and partners on how to use the system for project design, monitoring and close-down. As this system is embedded in its work, it will improve Tearfund's ability to track evidence on the role of faith-based actors in humanitarian programming. Tearfund has also completed its review of its resource on ‘Disasters and the local church’, and  it has commissioned a piece of research on the role of the Church in protracted crises, with a particular focus on South Sudan, Syria and Lebanon. Alongside Islamic Relief Worldwide, RedR, and the Joint Learning Institute (JLI), Tearfund is delivering an innovation project in South Sudan on the role of faith in humanitarian response. This includes a component on research, evidence and learning exploring the development of an evidence-based model to facilitate effective ‘two-way engagement’ with faith actors and the wider humanitarian community. Lastly, Tearfund has just launched a research report on ‘Faith in Action’ which looks back at the past 50 years of Tearfund’s work and explores how the role of faith has influenced its programming.

    B. Please select if your report relates to any initiatives launched at World Humanitarian summit
    • Charter for Change
    2. A. Please select no more than 3 key challenges faced in implementing the commitments related to this transformation. Only the categories selected by the organisation will be seen below.
    • Human resources/capacity
    • Information management/tools
    B. How are these challenges impacting achievement of this transformation?

    Without a robust monitoring and evaluation system, it is very difficult to monitor and evaluate the role of faith-based actors and this weakens accountability mechanisms. Work is ongoing but the roll out will take time. Secondly, Tearfund has limited resources/capacity to conduct impact studies to explore the role of faith.

    3. What steps or actions are needed to make collective progress to achieve this transformation?

    Tearfund believes that increasing strategic engagement with the Joint Learning Initiative (JLI) will support collective progress against this commitment. The JLI is an international collaboration focused on evidence for faith groups’ role and contributions to local community health and wellbeing and ending poverty. Tearfund has continued to work with JLI throughout 2018 and will continue to do so in the future.

    Keywords

    Innovation, Quality and accountability standards, Religious engagement, Transparency / IATI